


To See Without Sight

by Spinofflady



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 12:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9895814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spinofflady/pseuds/Spinofflady
Summary: Astrid, now blind, has given up the hope of ever seeing again, until Hiccup teaches her how to see without vision.A RTTE one-shot based on Blindsided.





	

It was dark. No light. No shadows. No shapes. There was total darkness, and for the first time in her life she was scared of it.

Even as a child, she had never feared the dark, and she had been proud of that. But now…now she was terrified. Now she couldn’t just open her eyes and prove to herself that there were no monsters lingering over her. Now she couldn’t climb out of bed and close the curtains to block out the spine-chilling shadows. Now she couldn’t follow the candlelight into her parent’s room because of the frightening storm.  Now she was blind.

Astrid swallowed thickly, refusing to open her eyes and physically remind herself of the fact. She wanted desperately to open them, and to be pleasantly surprised when she was fine, but she didn’t know if she could bear to see, or not see, the hard truth again.

A strange creaking made her shiver. What was that noise? She strained her ears to listen for more. The rain drops that slid down the roof sounded like thousands of snakes hissing and slithering around. Was that footsteps in the distance? She knew there was an axe in the corner of her hut, if she ended up needing to defend herself.

It suddenly dawned on her that she had no idea whether or not she was in her hut. She was simply inside, lying on a wooden floor, exposed and unprotected. Her breathe quickened. She was so helpless. There was no way she could defend herself now…or ever again. This was it. This was her new life.

People would pity or mock her. They’d have to lead her around and feed her and help her do every little thing. She wasn’t a warrior anymore. She wasn’t agile and quick. She wasn’t strong. She could never be the Fearless Astrid Hofferson again.

And so for the first time in months, Astrid started to cry. She rolled onto her right side, curled up in a ball, and cried. Quietly, at first, but the choking sobs of despair and disappointment soon forced their way to the surface.

She was useless now. She couldn’t fight or scout or…she paused. She could still be a Dragon Rider. Stormfly would help her—they were a team. But the thought came to her that Stormfly wasn’t there; she was still out in the storm. And Hiccup and Toothless must have left when she fell asleep…

Astrid suddenly realized how completely and utterly alone she was.

Now she was truly terrified. She was alone in an unknown place, and she was blind. The thought of it made her cry all the harder. A hand suddenly touched her arm, and with a gasp she tried to scramble away.

“No, no! Astrid, it’s just me! It’s Hiccup!”

She stopped at the sound of his voice. He was still here? “Oh. I…I thought you left.” Tears were still streaming down her face, and she desperately tried to brush them away.

“And leave you all alone? No, I wouldn’t do that. I just fell asleep.”

She sighed. She should have known he would never leave. And she was beyond glad of that fact.

“Why are you crying?” he went on gently.

Astrid hesitated, taking in a deep breath to steady herself.  “It’s…just a lot to take in.” Her voice quivered near the end of the sentence, and she burst into tears again. She shouldn’t be crying. It would only make her seem weaker than she already was, but she no longer cared.

Hiccup gathered her into his arms and let her cry. He could only imagine how she felt. She was Astrid—strong, independent, self-reliant—and now she had been thrust into a world of…helplessness.

He knew that she was lucky to be alive, but Astrid probably would have preferred death over blindness. This new disability meant that her freedom was gone, and to Astrid, life was nothing without freedom.

She had buried her face in his chest and melted into him, as though trying to hide herself from the world. His body muffled her racking sobs, though his tunic was now soaked with her tears. He wished he could take this for her; at least then he wouldn’t have to watch her cry. The sight of her anguish was ripping his heart out.

Astrid usually would have calmed by then, but the combination of shock, weariness, and overwhelming disbelief caused her to continue.  Hours passed and the only words spoken were an occasional “Shh” or “it’s okay, I’m here” from Hiccup. Astrid finally quieted, and silence took over the room, each of them dosing off once or twice.

She remained in his arms for those hours, staring blankly ahead of her. Tears stains streaked through her sooty cheeks, and her sightless eyes had become fiercely red and swollen. Hiccup continued stroking her back with the palm of his hand, hoping to savor the moment as best he could. Someday he would look back at this and smile, but decided that smiling couldn’t wait, so he did it then, leaning his head down on hers.

He had to admit, he loved the way she was nestled up on his chest, he loved having his arms around her, he loved this…closeness.

Closeness was something he never had. As a child, he had never snuggled into bed with his parents. He had never fallen asleep in his father’s arms. He had never felt a mother’s soothing touch or gentle hands. He could remember being hugged goodnight only a handful of times, and kissed even less.

The only touch he had ever really known was rough and often painful, being manhandled and pushed around. His father, specifically, never meant to hurt him by said actions, but Hiccup longed for gentle contact with other people. Of course, he rarely got it (Not counting Toothless. His dragon was the only one who seemed to understand what he wanted.), since Viking’s aren’t exactly known to be gentle and loving, but that only made him want it more.

But Astrid…Astrid was different. Whether she knew how much he loved it or not, she had learned to reassure him with touch: a hand on his shoulder, a hug, or taking his hand in hers. She might never know how much that meant to him, but he would always love her for it. He hoped that the touch he was giving her now would comfort her as much as it would him.

“I’m sorry for crying on you,” she whispered suddenly.

Hiccup nearly laughed. He _certainly_ didn’t mind. “You can cry on me anytime, milady.” Silence followed, and he wondered if he should have left out the last word.

“Hiccup?” she whispered again, almost softer than before. “Where are we?”

He was an idiot. How could he have been so stupid? Here she was in a pitch black world, unknowing of her surroundings, and he didn’t have the thought to mention where they were! “We’re in the clubhouse, next to the table,” he replied finally. “In fact, I’m leaned up against it, facing the door. You’re facing the kitchen entrance.”

“Oh,” she said quietly. “I thought we were in my hut. But then I got confused because I sat on something earlier, and it wasn’t my bed.”

“That was the table,” he told her, feeling guilty for not explaining her surroundings to her sooner. He would have to work on that. “Say, now that we’re both awake, why don’t we get you cleaned up?”

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Cleaned up?”

Now he was definitely an idiot. Of course she didn’t know she was covered in soot and smoke! “Oh,” he stuttered, feeling more idiotic by the second. “The explosion left some soot on you.”

She looked rather horrified. “Where? Why didn’t one tell me?”

“All over. On your face, mostly.”

Her hand flew to her cheek, and she frantically felt around for the dirt. Hiccup fought the urge to chuckle, he had never seen Astrid even remotely care about the way she looked, but on those occasions she could still _see_ what she looked like. “Hold on,” he stopped her, pushing her hands down. “Let me get a towel and some water.”

He scooted out from under her, but noticed the look of dismay on her face. She obviously didn’t want to be left alone, and he didn’t blame her. “I’ll only be gone a minute,” he informed her. “Just stay with Toothless.” He called his dragon over and guided her hand to the Night Fury’s head.

True to his word, he was only gone a minute or less. Astrid insisted she could clean herself, but after several failed attempts and spilling the water, she reluctantly allowed Hiccup to help her. It hurt her pride terribly to need help with such a simple task. It hurt even more when it took her _far_ too long to change her clothes, since Hiccup obviously couldn’t help with that. But finally all evidence of the lightning incident had been removed, all except for her blindness.

They sat on the floor as the night went on, talking about what Hiccup assumed would be lighthearted topics, and for the most part they were. But finally Astrid decided to ask what she had been wondering about all evening.

“Hiccup, are my eyes…are they different?” she asked, not entirely sure how to word the question.

He was quiet for a minute. “No,” he said finally. “Not really. They’re still blue, there’s just more blue now, because the pupils are smaller.”

“Oh, good. I was worried they were…I don’t know. Something worse.” She breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

“Astrid, you’re eyes…” Hiccup trailed off, even though he had started the sentence with determination.

“My eyes are what?”

He drew in a long breath. “They’re beautiful. They are so…deep, now. I feel they could see right through me.”

“Well, right now they aren’t seeing anything,” she mumbled, not noticing that he had called her eyes beautiful.  “I want to see again.” She added wistfully.

Hiccup covered her hand with his. “You will. I promise.”

She hung her head, wishing with all her heart that she could believe him.

“But in the mean time,” he went on, “There are still other ways to see.”

Confused, she allowed him to stand her up, and followed as he lead her a few steps away. “So, other than being in the Clubhouse, do you have any idea where you are?” he asked.

“Not anymore,” Astrid muttered somewhat angrily. “Thanks to you.”

“Good!” he announced, letting go of her hand.

“Where are you going?” she asked urgently, turning and feeling frantically for him.

“Not far,” he replied, and sounding much further away. “Okay, your job is to find Toothless.”

“But I don’t know where I am!”

“Then you’ll have to figure that out too.”

“But I can’t see anything!”

“You don’t need to.” A door suddenly slammed.

“Hiccup, are you still there? Astrid called worriedly into the darkness.

“Yep. I won’t leave, promise. Which direction did you hear the door from?” He was clearly serious about this whole “seeing without sight” thing.

“The right?” she asked with a sigh.

“I don’t know, was it to your right?” the hint of teasing in his voice only bothered her further.

“Yes, it was my right. There is a door to my right. And it didn’t creak, so it has to be the side door.”

“Good!” Hiccup exclaimed, now in a different part of the room. “So if the side door is too your right, what is in front of you?”

“A wall,” she shot back unenthusiastically.

“Yes, a wall would be correct,” he muttered with exasperation. “What else?”

She sighed again. He was only trying to help; she should at least try to work with him. But this would never work. After all, she’d only been blind for a few hours, and she had the rest of her life to figure the whole thing out. Not the most exciting way to spend the future… “The table is to my left…no, my right…” she huffed. “Which side of the table am I on?”

“That’s for you to figure out. And you can move around, Astrid. I’m not going to let you walk into anything.”

Astrid took a few experimental steps forward, her arms raised in front of her to prevent crashing into anything. He foot suddenly bumped something, and she bent to feel it…raised wooden sides…a box…and it had clattered when she bumped it. “This is the Maces and Talons game,” she realized aloud.

“Good!”

“Which means this must be near the corner…” she ran her hands down the wall, and eventually felt it and another intersect. “And there’s a window about halfway down.” She walked slowly to her left, skimming the wall with her fingers until she reached the window. “And that’s across from the table.”

She cautiously walked to the right, headed for the center of the room, her outstretched hands finally touching the wood. The door, which she had been facing earlier, was in front of her, so she slowly walked around the table, suddenly feeling the dragon’s anticipating breath on her arm.

Astrid turned and clumsily placed a hand on the dragon’s head with a smile. “Found him.”

She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder and she recognized it as Hiccup’s touch. “Astrid, do you realize what you just did?”

She shook her head, and then added “Well, I found Toothless if that’s what you mean.”

“You found Toothless using a single door slam for direction. One sound. That’s all it took. I know this is hard for you, but you aren’t helpless.” He smiled, but it faded when he realized that she couldn’t see it.

“But you were helping me…you aren’t always going to be-”

“Astrid, I will _always_ be there to help you. Always.”

Astrid smiled, though she stared slightly past him, her gaze unfocused. They moved around as though she was looking for something, but they never settled on him. “I wish I could see you,” she whispered sadly, hanging her head.

“You can,” Hiccup replied, and without giving himself time to think he grabbed her hands and placed them on either side of his face. Her eyes widened for a minute, until she realized what he had done. “You can still see me. You can hear me. You can feel me. Seeing is done with the heart, not the eyes.”

Her fingers slowly started to trace his face, her thumb lingering briefly over the little white scar on his chin. Her other fingers discovered a day’s worth of stubble along his jaw. She ran her fingers over his chapped lips, across his cheeks and over his nose, and noticed that his eyes were closed. She ran a hand down his left arm, took his hand in her own, and brought it to her cheek. She wanted him to see her, too.

Astrid felt his still damp hair sticking his forehead, and brushed it out of the way as he stroked her cheek. Her hands found their way down and around his neck, following it down to his chest. Each tiny piece of leather from his tunic felt like ripples of water beneath her hands.

And suddenly, she could see him. Not with her eyes, but she knew what he looked like better than ever. Details her eyes had failed to detect had not been overlooked by her fingers.

She flung herself into his chest, and coiled her arms around his as tightly as she could. He immediately returned the gesture, nosing her hair with a contented sigh. “Thank you,” she said quietly, “For teaching me how to see without sight.”

“You’re welcome, Milady.”

She knew he was smiling as he squeezed her, and suddenly her black world wasn’t quite so dark.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, everyone! If you enjoyed, please feel free to leave Kudos. I love it when I get feedback, so comments make my day. I hope you enjoyed this little story as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> ~Spinofflady


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